Emmanuel Macron is due to preside over a ceremony on Wednesday in honor of the feminist activist who died in 2020.
Journalist Serge Halimi, one of the sons of Gisèle Halimi, who died in 2020, will not participate in the national tribute to the lawyer scheduled for Wednesday. This event occurs in full mobilization against a pension reform that the feminist activist would have fought, he announced on Sunday March 5.
The former director of Diplomatic worlda left-leaning monthly, is said to have been “suddenly informed” this week by the Presidency of the Republic, “at the same time as the press”that this tribute would take place on Wednesday, March 8, on International Women’s Day. “The decision of the Elysée comes after more than two years of procrastination and while the country is mobilized against an extremely unfair pension reform of which women who occupy the most difficult jobs will be the first victims”said Serge Halimi in a statement sent to AFP.
“My mother would have defended their cause and demonstrated alongside them. March 8 will be the best way to honor her memory and her struggles.”
Serge Halimi, journalist and son of Gisèle Halimiat AFP
Serge Halimi thus agrees with the position expressed by the president of the association “Choisir la cause des femmes”, founded by Gisèle Halimi and Simone de Beauvoir in 1971. Organizing this national tribute in the midst of protest against the pension reform is a “political instrumentalization”estimated Violaine Lucas, who will not participate either in the ceremony planned at the Paris courthouse.
Another son of Gisèle Halimi “very satisfied”
Conversely, the lawyer Jean-Yves Halimi, brother of Serge, said to himself “very satisfied” at the announcement of this tribute to the fierce fighter for the right to abortion. “I always thought she deserved it”he pointed out.
Lawyer, politician and writer, Gisèle Halimi, who died on July 28, 2020 at the age of 93, made her life a fight for women’s rights. She notably worked for the decriminalization of abortion, then for its coverage by Social Security. She also denounced the use of torture during the Algerian war by the French soldiers, which then earned her an arrest and a brief detention.